


Mabel Finds an Unlikely Ally

by JeweloftheWorld



Series: Castaway AU [3]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Because I'm a Sucker for Redemption Arcs, Because the Amulet Corrupted his Soul, Big Brother Soos, But he Isn't Being the Best Grunkle, Canon Divergence - s02e04 Sock Opera, Child Imprisonment, Dipper Pines is Comatose, Gen, Gideon Gleeful gets a Redemption Arc, Good Sister Mabel Pines, Guilty Mabel Pines, Hospitalization, Imprisonment, Journal 3 (Gravity Falls), Mabel Pines Looks for the Author, Rating May Change, Schizophrenia-Like Symptoms, She's Very Brave, Stan Pines Means Well, Tags May Change, To Find Dipper, Unrequited Gideon Gleeful/Mabel Pines, he also has, it's sad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 18:28:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29283024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JeweloftheWorld/pseuds/JeweloftheWorld
Summary: With Dipper in a coma and the Journal destroyed, Mabel decides that the only person who can help is the mysterious Author her brother had been searching for. Unfortunately, she's fresh out of clues. Unsure of what to do, Mabel turns to the last person she ever thought she'd ask for help: Gideon.Gideon couldn't be more excited. Dipper and Stan are out of the way. Mabel is visiting him regularly and agreed to share everything she learns about the Journals and their Author. The nightmares even stopped! The voice which has guided him through the past 2 years of his life urges him to take full advantage of the situation. For once, however, he doesn't want to listen to it.
Relationships: Bud Gleeful & Gideon Gleeful, Candy Chiu & Grenda & Mabel Pines, Fiddleford H. McGucket & Mabel Pines, Gideon Gleeful & Mabel Pines, Gideon Gleeful & The Voice in His Head, Gideon Gleeful/Mabel Pines (one-sided), Jesus "Soos" Alzamirano Ramirez & Mabel Pines, Mabel Pines & Dipper and Mabel Pines' Parents, Mabel Pines & Stan Pines
Series: Castaway AU [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2069733
Kudos: 5





	Mabel Finds an Unlikely Ally

**Author's Note:**

> This work runs concurrently with [Castaways Meet on Rocky Shores](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28517742/chapters/69880182). This one follows what happens with Mabel and Gideon in Gravity Falls and the other follows what happens with Dipper and Delphina (an OC) in the Nightmare Realm. You may want to read my sort of prologue, [Later That Night](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28254144), first. I plan on posting other works that follow Pacifica, Wendy, Robbie, and maybe Stan during the same timeline. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

Mabel blinked groggily. The lighting was all wrong. Harsh fluorescents rather than the warm light of the sunrise streaming through her window or the soft glow of an oil lamp. And it smelled funny. Sure their room smelled pretty funky at times considering Dipper's hygiene habits but this was-

Dipper! Dipper was in trouble! Bill did something to him! He was after the Journal! She had to stop him!

She threw off the oddly scratchy blanket and swung her legs over the side of the bed.

"Woah, calm down there, hambone. The doc said you might have a concussion. You should probably lie down,” Soos admonished from an uncomfortable-looking plastic chair.

Mabel was tempted to agree. Her head hurt just from the effort of sitting up.

"Soos, where's Dipper? Why am I in a hospital?" 

"Dipper's right in the other room, you two had a wicked bad fall at the puppet show. I don't like to judge but that Gabe seems like bad news. He didn't even ask about you." 

"Is he okay?" Mabel was frustrated by Soos's priorities but it was hard to form the questions. Who cared about Gabe? Bill was after Dipper. Why wasn't Soos more concerned?

"Doc says he's fine,” Soos said in a far to calm voice. “You can see him in a bit. First, I need to let the others know that you're up and the nurse'll want to check on you. Just hang tight."

"But Bill! What happened? He was after the Journal! Dipper was a sock puppet!" Mabel shouted, trying to impart some fraction of the urgency she felt. 

"What? Like that triangle dude? You defeated him, remember?" Now Soos sounded concerned but not for Dipper. She wanted to scream but her head was pounding already.

"I know that," Mabel huffed. "He came back, made some deal with Dipper, took over his body! That's why he was acting so weird. He wasn't sleep deprived. He was possessed. I need to see him now!" Finally, Soos seemed to understand something because his eyes went wide.

Then the nurse came in and started asking a lot of questions and shining a weird light in Mabel's eye, making it tough to focus. At some point, Soos left and Grunkle Stan came in. When the nurse was finally done with her protesting patient, Stan stood by the bed and smiled.

"You know, you promised me that your little puppet show wasn't gonna cost me a cent. So you better have a mighty good explanation for how you fell off that catwalk." The familiar sternness soothed Mabel a little. She could trust Stan. He'd know what to do.

"Dipper was possessed by a demon! A really mean one named Bill. He wanted the Journal." Stan stiffened. 

"Yeah, about that, Mabel,” Stan started. “I found Dipper's Journal on the stage last night, or what was left of it. I'm not looking forward to telling him that."

"Last night? How long was I out? What happened to Dipper?" No one was answering her questions or taking her seriously!

Stan casually checked his watch and said, "Eh, at least 12 hours. You were kind of in and out at first but after you answered a few questions for the doc she cleared you to sleep. Dipper’s a lot better off considering you broke his fall. Guess he was tired enough to just conk out after all the excitement. He'll probably be up soon."

"Okay, okay." Mabel started to relax, her grunkle’s calm words comforting her. Dipper was fine, even if the Journal wasn't. Bill got what he wanted and left them alone. 

“Oh, by the way, your parents should be here in a few hours. Could you try to be reassuring? Don’t want them thinking I’m a bad summer caretaker or anything,” Stan added. Mabel suppressed a groan. She loved her parents but they always got so fussy over injuries. They might even want them to come home. 

"You're a great caretaker Grunkle Stan! I can tell them how you fought off all those zombies!" Mabel enthused. Mom and Dad would love Grunkle Stan just as much as she did. 

Probably… 

Maybe not… 

Mabel knew that her grunkle wasn't what most people would consider to be a "positive role model." And the two of them landing in the hospital certainly wasn't a good look. 

"Heh, heh. Maybe don't mention anything about zombies or demons or gnome boyfriends to your parents. In fact, maybe leave out anything involving weird stuff. I mean, you just fell off a catwalk, right? Kids fall out of trees and junk all the time." Mabel was surprised to see her grunkle looking genuinely nervous. She also didn't fail to notice the question he slipped in.

"Not exactly,” she explained. “I was trying to keep the Journal away from Bipper. I was inside the cake, and I thought the pulley would slow our fall, but I guess I was wrong." 

“Right, uh, this Bill character, what’s his whole deal?” Mabel had to think about that for a minute. Dipper hadn’t had a chance to tell her much, mostly because she was busy drooling over Gabe. Why hadn’t she listened?

For that matter, why hadn’t she just shut down the play until they figured things out? Then she would have had Candy and Grenda watching her back while she grabbed the Journal. Gabe might’ve been upset but if he couldn’t understand a family emergency, then…  _ but he’s so dreamy _ . 

Nope, not worth it. If Soos thought he was bad news, then Mabel would trust that. Besides, she’d rather have Dipper than Gabe any day. She just forgot sometimes. 

_ He did drive a biscotti _ . 

That was a little distracting. 

But she knew Bill was bad news, really bad news. And why didn’t she notice Dipper acting funny? And before that, she knew Dipper was already driving himself nuts over that laptop, and then he had a demon bothering him on top of that. She couldn’t trust Dipper to make smart decisions while he was sleep-deprived. Why hadn’t she stepped in as soon as he mentioned the triangle? And why-

“Hey, sweetie, you alright there? You’re not looking great,” Stan asked, breaking her out of her spiraling thoughts. 

“It’s all my fault,” she whispered under her breath. “All of it.”

“Hey now, I’m sure that’s not true.” Stan stood and put a hand on her shoulder, bending a little so he could look her in the eye. “I mean, it’s a demon, you said? Who in their right minds expects a couple of kids to handle a demon?” 

“Dipper could. He did it before. He saved me, saved all of us but I wasn’t there when he needed me. Now the Journal’s gone, and he’s gonna be so mad at me! He’ll never talk to me again,” sobbed Mabel. She was so wrapped up in her guilt that it took her a moment to notice that Stan had just stopped. It looked like his mind was a million miles away. Suddenly, he gripped her shoulder much more tightly than before.

“Hey. Hey! If that happens, then you don’t  _ let _ him stop talking to you!” Stan’s sudden fervor was gone as quickly as it had come. He continued in a more matter-of-fact tone, “I can’t imagine anyone staying mad at you for long, especially not Dipper, but if you give up on him, he won’t have a chance to forgive you, okay? And if he gets mad enough to do something stupid, then you come get me and I’ll knock some sense into him.” Mabel thought about that for a minute.

“Making a deal with a demon doesn’t count as something stupid?” she finally asked. “He was mad because I didn’t help him so he found someone who would. Then I didn’t notice that he was in danger until it was too late!” Mabel was nearly hysterical at this point.

"Mabel, listen to me. If Dipper thinks that Journal is more important than his sister, then  _ you _ are not the problem. Sure, maybe he'll be a little upset but I think he's mostly just going to be glad you're alright." 

“You really think so?”

“Sure thing, kiddo. It’ll take more than a demon to tear you two apart.” Mabel smiled weakly at her grunkle’s reassurances.

“Can I see him? I want to be there when he wakes up.”

“I don’t see why not,” Stan snorted. “Let’s talk to the nurse about getting you out of that gown first though.”

Nearly a half-an-hour later, Mabel found herself sitting at the foot of her brother’s hospital bed. She was much more comfortable now she was wearing her own clothes and her headache had faded into the background. Grunkle Stan asked her a lot of questions about what happened with Bill. When she finished, he abruptly got up and said something about needing to check on things at the shack.

Now it was just her and her comatose brother. 

A half-finished sweater sat in her lap but she couldn’t bring herself to work on it. All she could think about was how she was going to tell Dipper about what happened to the Journal. Even if he wasn’t angry at  _ her _ , he was going to be upset. 

Maybe it would be like when Grunkle Stan took it; he’d miss it, but he would let it bother him. Of course, there was a big difference between confiscation and destruction. Besides, what if they needed the information in the Journal? What if Bill came back?

After a long moment of anxious fretting, Mabel grabbed a pad of paper and started to write down everything she could remember from the Journals. It wasn’t much, but maybe it would help.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Comments and kudos are always appreciated. You can follow me on Tumblr  
> [@thejeweloftheworld](https://thejeweloftheworld.tumblr.com/)


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